For the IronPigs faithful, National Pig Day is a little like Christmas

Single-game ticket sales draw a big, early crowd that started forming at 3 a.m.

March 02, 2013|By Daniel Patrick Sheehan, Of The Morning Call

Reliable as a crocus in marking the approach of spring, Kyle Grube was back at Coca-Cola Park on Saturday morning to buy single-game tickets for the coming season of Lehigh Valley IronPigs baseball.

It's become a minor holiday for the faithful: National Pig Day, when the chilly job of standing in line for tickets is rewarded with a pig roast, hot dogs, pretzels, cocoa and the team's trademark mix of activities for kids, including balloon-animal making by Tootsie the Clown and storyteller Farmer Sally's "Pig Tales in the Barnyard."

"This is my fourth year coming out, and every year I've gotten here earlier and earlier," said Grube, 38, a landscaper from Easton who arrived at the east Allentown ball park at 3:30 a.m. to stake a claim as first in line. He seemed none the worse for it as the 9 a.m. opening of the ticket windows inched closer.

Must have been the cold keeping him lively. It was 30 degrees when Grube arrived and hardly warmer than that after the sun rose.

Like last year, Grube found himself keeping company with Jeffrey Sterner of Allentown, who arrived around 4 a.m. to ensure he got tickets for opening day and for the Triple-A National Championship game Sept. 17.

Sterner was second in line — he was first last year — and seemed utterly content to sit and look forward to another season of baseball at the stadium, which is entering its sixth year as home to the Philadelphia Phillies Triple A affiliate.

The cold didn't bother him ("I work in a cooler in the Wegmans meat department") and the crowd, which had grown to perhaps a couple hundred people by 9 a.m., delighted him.

"They didn't know how big it would get when they built this place," he said.

Behind Sterner, Paul Magargal of Allentown said the success of the 'Pigs — who have led the minors in attendance a couple of times and hosted the Triple-A All-Star game in 2010 — didn't surprise him at all.

"I used to go out to Reading 40 times a year with my son," he said, reckoning there must have been plenty of baseball fanatics besides him ready to trade that 45-minute trip for closer-to-home games with players just a step from the big leagues.

"Last year I made it to 58 games out here without having a season-ticket package," Magargal said. "How about that?"

He planned to get tickets for the National Championship game, which will pit the champions of the IronPigs' International League against the champs of the Pacific Coast League.

Magargal anticipates the 'Pigs being in the game — they missed the playoffs last year after making it for the first time in 2011— but said everything depends on the fortunes of their parent club.

"It all depends on who the Phillies decide to keep," he said. "Last year we never got gelled as a team because guys were being called up all the time."

The team's general manager, Kurt Landes, made an executive decision to open the ticket windows 15 minutes early, which was a great act of mercy as fingers and noses grew numb.

"We are blessed to have great fans," he said, casting his eye down the line and guessing it was a little longer than last year's.

Landes touted some of the new features in the park this year, including new fixed-seating areas along the third base line and in right field — the Hot Corner and the Bacon Strip, respectively — and promised some surprises in coming weeks as the season approaches.

"There's a few things we can't announce quite yet," he said, tantalizing as a carnival barker as the first ticket buyers reached the windows.